Carpe Diem
by Dreamer of Riddles
Summary: Symphonia's most two prominate schools boast many things: a dark entwined history full of con and theft, a cold principle with questionable ambitions. And the only one who can stop it all...doesn't have a clue. [AU] [Mainly Colloyd and Sheelos]


**Carpe Diem**

_Prologue: Irving, Lloyd_

Uh...this is my new multi-chapter fic. Obviously, it's Tales of Symphonia, and it's obviously AU. Beware of unoriginal couples! Colloyd, Sheelos, Gensea, and Kraine! With some Kranna on the side...and whatever abbreviation for Regal and Alicia there is. Relicia? Anyhoo, beware of mild language, mild suggestive themes, and "Zelos Moments". As you will see in later chapters, it's rated T for a reason.

But please review! Give me comments and ideas. I love that stuff. If you have an idea of something that should happen, maybe a funny scene or something like that, then mention it in a review! I lot reader comments and ideas. They rock.

But, alas, I babble! On with the prologue!

* * *

"Lloyd, wake up!"

The vehicle should have gone over a bump in the road. The fact that it didn't was what made Lloyd peel his eyes open and sit up. According to his old wristwatch that stubbornly refused to give an accurate time whenever it was most needed, it had been around three hours since he had boarded the bus that was now taking him down an unfamiliar road that, unlike the driveway that led to his house, was not covered in potholes.

Or maybe it had been more than three hours since his 'journey' to the Palmacosta Academy for Boys had begun. He couldn't tell, but he didn't question it for more than three seconds.

"Huh? Oh! Are we almost there?" he asked his best friend, Genis Sage. The young boy nodded, fair strands of silver hair swishing around his neck.

"The bus driver said that it would only be a few more minutes, so I thought I'd better wake you up. After all, you seem to function better when you're awake." He turned sideways in bus seat to fully examine Lloyd: beat-up brown shoes, blue jeans, inside-out red shirt, out-of-date wrist wear and all. "Though, it's kind of hard to tell with people like you."

Lloyd's eyes narrowed, sensing a putdown coming on. "What do you mean 'people like me'?"

"I mean 'stupid people'," Genis said simply, patting Lloyd on the leg and smiling sympathetically as though he were the seventeen-year-old and Lloyd was only twelve, not the other way around.

"Shut it, Genis!"

A crackling, bored voice came on over the bus speaker. "Now arriving in Sylverant City, educational district." The bus driver didn't bother to repeat himself, since there were only a few people, mostly students, on the bus.

Like a magnet to a refrigerator, Lloyd's face snapped to the window. After drinking in the sight of the excitement that was Sylverant City, he glared accusingly back at his silver-haired friend. "You didn't tell me we were already in the city!"

Genis shrugged, flipping through a tourist's guidebook of the city. "Not like you'd care about the real history behind the city anyway, but you shouldn't worry. They list all the places to stop your heart with junk food here in the guidebook."

"I'd like to see it with my own eyes, thank you," Lloyd snapped, watching as all sorts of buildings, made of everything from wood to white bricks to grand stone museums.

"No, really. The guidebook really does list places that sell high-cholesterol junkie foods. It's even labeled with your face, Lloyd," Genis said, snickering at his own joke and ducking as Lloyd made to hit him.

"Genis!"

The young elf raised a hand in apology, leaning back against the scratchy blue plaid upholstery that covered the bus seats. "Hey, I tried to wake you up. You just snored."

Any other time, Lloyd would have been more than happy to point out that Genis himself could stir up some pretty impressive snoring, but not now. Sylverant City was the largest city in all of Symphonia. With over three hundred thousand people that could proudly boast a happy and peaceful lifestyle, Lloyd couldn't wait to be one of them. A happy student of the Palmacosta Academy.

The bus turned, and the Academy loomed ahead. A tall brick wall, enclosing the entire campus. A colossal iron gate served as the entrance. Looming over the iron gate like a rainbow over a pond was a stone archway upon which the words "_Carpe Diem_" were written.

"This is so exciting!" Lloyd said as the bus pulled through the iron gate, left open to the public due to the large amount of traffic caused by the Student Arrival Day.

Circling to a stop on a large cul-de-sac in the middle of the campus, the bus doors opened. Lloyd grabbed his red and silver backpack. He was the first one off the bus, the sounds of student talking, the beckoning of the sunny quads and sports fields, and the pure excitement over being here going straight to his head. Genis followed him quickly, pondering a few things, among which were 1) why was Lloyd so excited about being at a _school_ and 2) he's probably going to do something stupid…again.

"Wow, cool! Hey, Genis, look at this place! It's awesome! Look at the buildings, and the quads, and the _people_…" Lloyd said, bouncing from one foot to the other, unaware that he looked like a hopping moron who couldn't even put his shirt on the right way. "I can't believe I missed the rest of the city sleeping!"

Holding up his hand to shield him from the sudden glare of the sun, Genis rolled his eyes, grabbing his two blue suitcase-on-wheels as the bus attendant unloaded them from the lower storage. "Fine, how about this: we have three days until classes start, so I promise that we'll go on a tour of the city after we get our stuff settled in. Okay?"

Lloyd found his duffel bag (red, to match his backpack), and grinned at the elf boy. "Really? Cool. Sounds awesome!"

"Geez, Lloyd, you're such a little kid."

The two other male students, 3rd Year Sophomores returning for another year, that were on the bus got off, disappearing off towards one of the fancy white buildings. Passengers safely disbanded, the bus revved to life again, circling the rest of the way around the cul-de-sac and driving down the street.

"Okay, Lloyd. We're here," Genis began matter-of-factly. "and I have to go to the 1st Year Freshman orientation. Since you're entering the academy as a 5th Year Junior, you're not supposed to come to any orientation, so you should probably find your dorm…"

Reaching into his jean pocket, Lloyd pulled out a piece of white paper. "This letter says that they'll send my RA to find me." Putting the paper back in his pocket, he mumbled to himself. "Whatever a 'RA' is…"

Genis didn't hear him. He only nodded. "Okay! Sounds good. I'll meet you later in the cafeteria."

Without waiting for Lloyd to answer, Genis turned around towards the right side of the street and walked off, wheeling his suitcases behind him. Lloyd watching him go for a moment until he lost his blue-clothed friend behind a group of tough looking jocks.

* * *

Lloyd was lost.

After waiting patiently for an entire fifteen minutes for this RA person to arrive, he had decided to take some action and find this RA by himself. He wasn't sure what to look for, seeing as he had only been on the campus for less than an hour, but he figured it shouldn't be too hard.

"I mean, they must have those special initials for a reason, right? So, they should stand out or something," he mumbled to himself as he wandering hopelessly around the campus, eyes open for a big tall somebody with a T-shirt that read "I'm a RA and I'm looking for _you!_" on it.

He was so busy wandering that he failed to notice where he was going. A fateful collision ensued.

"Ah!" he yelled.

"Ah!" a high-pitched voice echoed.

He stumbled backwards, almost falling over but barely keeping his balance. His chest stung briefly, but it didn't bother him. Instead, he ignored the snickers of passerby and reached a hand down to help up the person he had run in to.

To his surprise, it was a girl. A short, flat-chested girl with a hair color that closely resembled that of a peeled banana, only a lot shinier. Her blue eyes looked horrified, her mouth open as she quickly gushed apologies. He offered her a hand, and she took it, getting back on her feet.

"Oh my gosh! I'm sorry! That was really silly of me. I wasn't looking where I was going, and I ran into you!" she said quickly, her round cheeks flushing with embarrassment.

"Hey, it was no big deal. I wasn't really watching where I was walking," he said easily, looking her up and down with concern. "You're not hurt, are you?"

She didn't look hurt. Wearing a white tank top that hung loosely around her pale skinny frame, pastel pink running shorts, socks with little hearts embroidered on them, and glittery purple and white Sketchers, she didn't look hurt. She looked like a track runner of some kind.

"Oh, no, of course not. I'm perfectly fine, a-and I'm sorry for worrying you. I didn't mean too," she said, quickly adding, "I'm sorry."

"Look, you don't have to keep apologizing-!" Lloyd started to say, before a sharp voice cut through the noise of the students. The girl bit her lip and he looked over her shoulder to see a tall and…shapely woman jogging towards them.

The woman appeared to be older than he was by a few years, although Lloyd was still taller by an inch or so. She, like the other girl, was dressed to run. In her hip-hugging black nylon shorts, black and white running shoes, and white shirt similar to the other girl's, only…well, the growing hormonal part of Lloyd's teenage mind couldn't help but think that _this_ woman actually 'had something' to support the shirt.

"Get away from her, jerk!" The woman said, coming to a stop and planting her hands on her hips. A few wisps of her thick black hair, held back from her face with a pink elastic scrunchie, escaped to drape around her brown eyes.

Lloyd scowled. "I was just helping her up," he insisted, releasing the blonde girl's hand when he realized how it must have looked to this pushy woman.

She didn't buy it. "Don't think that saying stuff like that is going to get you out of this! I saw you knock her down." She turned to the blonde girl, who looked highly embarrassed. "Did he hurt you, Colette?" The blonde girl shook her head.

"Oh, so your name is Colette?" Lloyd said earnestly. Colette nodded, her hands clasped in front of her in a perfect praying manner.

"Yes," she said before turning to address the older woman. "Sheena, don't get so angry. I fell down. He was only helping me. I perfectly fine." She twirled around on her tiptoes, pulling her arms in tight and letting her banana-colored hair spin around her. "See? I'm fine!"

The older woman, Sheena, looked from Colette to Lloyd and back again. "Well, he's still wandering around _our_ grounds without permission. Shouldn't you be over on the _boys_ side?"

Lloyd blinked, a fact suddenly crossing his mind. "Wait a minute. This is the Palmacosta Academy for Boys! Why are there girls here? Are you locals?"

With one hand on her hind, she pointed with one long, clipped fingernail at the embellishment on her shirt. Lloyd flushed, his neck growing warm. It felt wrong to be staring at that particular part of her body. Leaning a little closer, he read the elegant red words written in a circle around a symbol of an angel reaching for the heavens.

St. Spiritua All-Star Girls Athletics Team 

He felt one of those "idiot moments" coming on. "Uh…St. Spiritua?"

Colette piped up, cutting off Sheena. "As in St. Spiritua's School for Girls. You know…the one right across the street from the Academy?"

Lloyd looked around, spinning in a complete circle. It was then that specific details of the campus he was on came out to him, just like they did perfectly when he really needed to notice them. On the right side of the street, newer looking white brick builds were set in a hexagon (that was the one with six sides, right?) around a middle quad of criss-crossing paths. Then, six yellow-brick buildings, all with different names written in a strange language etched above their doorways, were placed around green sport's fields and other smaller quads.

On the left side, however, the buildings looked older and there weren't as many. They were all made out of old red bricks, with tall windows and gargoyles. Only three builds sat around a small fountain area, with three more small builds around that.

"Um, well, I…uh…o-of course I knew that! Yeah. Yeah, I knew that…I just…forgot…kinda," he stammered. Colette smiled at him, when Sheena raised an eyebrow.

"Whatever. As a RA of St. Spiritua, it's my duty to report you for trespassing and crudeness in manner, but I'll let it slide this time," She waved her finger at him, her own face flushing. "But don't think that you'll get off so easy next time! We don't need any more trouble from you Academy jocks!"

"I'm impressed, hunny. The school year hasn't even started and the emotional stress has already begun to transform you into a violent demonic banshee. What's wrong, sweetheart? Do you want me so badly that you can't concentrate? Losing sleep at night, perhaps?"

Lloyd had never seen a stranger looking man. He walked with a slight slouch, swaying his hips slightly, perhaps to draw attention to them. His black jeans were a few sizes too big, and his shirt was pink, clashing painfully with his long, curled hot red hair. Fuzzy white bedroom slippers covered his feet, and a headband held his hair back from his face. On his shirt, in bold black letters, it read "Tough Guys Wear Pink."

"Z-Zelos Wilder!" Sheena sputtered, crossing her arms protectively in front of her noticeable chest. "I don't-! Not for a minute…I-I'll never-!"

"For an complete sentence while in my presence? That's okay, hunny, I understand. I'm just so sexy and handsome, it's a hard burden, speaking," Zelos said, slandering over and throwing his arm over Lloyd's shoulder, before muttering something in his ear "She digs me."

Colette meekly waved at Zelos, having given up on speaking. Sheena narrowed her eyes at Lloyd as if he were suddenly Arch Enemy Number Two. "You _know_ this playboy?"

He hardly heard her. He was looked at Colette. She had her eyes on the sidewalk, intently studying the weeds growing out of the cracks. Her hair fell around her shoulders, and she was wringing her hands nervously, as though she suddenly didn't feel comfortable being around here anymore.

Zelos was saying something, commenting over his accused playboy status. Sheena, however, was also eyeing Colette with concern.

"Whatever, playboy. Just take your stupid friend and get out of here," she said, with a little less threat and conviction than she would have liked. Without another word, she latched her elbow with Colette's and led her away. "C'mon, we promised Presea we'd help her move in."

The man Zelos laughed, throwing his head back and letting the sun bathe his face. "Ha! That was a hoot. She _totally_ wants me. You can just tell! Hoo, baby, the girl is hot! And lovely Miss Brunel isn't bad looking either, if I do say so myself."

Carefully stepping away, Lloyd blinked at the man. "Uh, who are you?"

"I'm your new best friend." A moment of silence in which Lloyd stared and Zelos grinned. "That is, I'm your RA."

"You're my RA?" Lloyd said, following Zelos as he crossed the street to the 'boy's side'. A few people called out greetings to Zelos, who waved his hand and grinned.

"Yep, that's right. You should count yourself lucky, getting a Residence Advisor like me. I mean, 'me' equal 'amazingly awesome' and 'all the other RA's' equal 'lame'." He shot a suspicious look at Lloyd. "Wait, you are Irving, Lloyd right?"

"It's just Lloyd."

"Well, that's what it said on those boxes the moving guys delivered to your room. Irving, Lloyd. So, bumpkin, that's what I'll be calling you." He paused to consider as they followed a black cement side path into a quad of residence halls. "Hum…bumpkin…I've change my mind! I like 'bumpkin' better."

"You're really weird," Lloyd commented. Zelos ignored him, stopping in the middle of the path and absent-mindedly scratching his leg.

"It is my duty as your new RA to give you some sort of speech. So…as a new member of the Tiger House, it is your duty to do the following: keep your alarm clock volume down low, because we all love our sleep. Eat at least one meal a day, so I don't get fired. Tell me when you want to throw a frat party, so I can come too (same basic rule applies for pornography). A side rule: stay away from my Violent Demonic Banshee; she's _mine_. Uh, flush the toilets, keep your room relatively clean, and don't miss your eleven o'clock p.m. curfew. Do all of this, and I won't feel the need to kick your ass."

Lloyd blinked. Genis hadn't mentioned that boarding school was going to be like this. Zelos laughed again, grinning easily and sliding his hands in his pockets. Lloyd searched his memory, trying to recall if Genis, the Professor, or even his dad Dirk had said anything about crazed RA's.

Zelos turned to continue onward, and Lloyd began to walk too. Suddenly, Zelos flung his arm out, spinning around and placing his hands on Lloyd's shoulders to stop him.

"Oh, bumpkin! One more thing."

"What?" Lloyd asked warily.

Zelos smiled, stepping back and flourishing his arms grandly towards the trees, fields and buildings around him.

"Welcome to the Palmacosta Academy!"

* * *

ROTFLMAO

Ah, I absolutely ADORE Zelos. glops

But, um, if anyone is still reading up to this point, then please leave a review! I love reviews! They are so encouraging and awesome.

Long live Symphonia!

Becca Ze Crazy


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